Washington Post reporter Audrey Hoffer writes about Ori, the flexible robotic furniture system developed by MIT researchers. “We want to change the paradigm to living large in a small footprint. People think square footage and functionality are linearly related, but that’s the old paradigm,” says MIT alumnus and founder Hasier Larrea.
Dr. Joseph Coughlin, director of the AgeLab, speaks with Today Show reporter A. Pawlowski about his new book and why females are uniquely positioned to handle life after middle age. “One of the greatest under-appreciated sources of innovation and new business may in fact be women over 50,” says Coughlin.
Jeff Freilich, associate director of the CSAIL Alliance Program, spoke with Here & Now’s Robin Young about a unique collaboration between MIT researchers and their colleagues in Kentucky, “focused on the future of the work in a part of the country where the coal industry has been hemorrhaging jobs.”
MIT Media Lab project, Biota Beats, collects bacteria from different parts of the body and turns it into music, reports Erin Blakemore from The Washington Post. “The team crowdsources swabs from body parts — including mouths, feet, and armpits — then cultures the microorganisms on petri dish-like ‘records,’” Blakemore writes.
Prof. Harvey Lodish and Prof. Emeritus Nancy Hopkins explain in The Boston Globe that the lack of women in the biotech industry stems from the exclusion of women at the venture capital firms that fund those companies. “Including more women in the pool of venture and biotech leaders will insure the success of the Massachusetts biopharmaceutical ecosystem,” Profs. Lodish and Hopkins conclude.
Writing about the future of clothing and fabrics, Kara Yurieff highlights the programmable material developed by the Advanced Functional Fabrics of America (AFFOA). The organization, which aims to “change what fabrics do,” according to Prof. Yoel Fink, will soon allow sports fans to scan jerseys at games to view player stats.
Writing for The Boston Globe, President L. Rafael Reif issues a call for allies to help address the changing nature of work in the age of automation. “Automation will transform our work, our lives, our society," writes Reif. "Whether the outcome is inclusive or exclusive, fair or laissez-faire, is up to us.”
BostInno’s Karis Hustad spotlights how Solve tackles some of the world’s most pressing challenges. “You need a different type of innovation or technology or adaptation and affordability of technology for some of the big challenges of today,” explains Alexandra Amouyel, Solve's executive director. “To do that, you need a much more bottom up, grassroots innovation process.”
In an article for HuffPost, Erandi Palihakkara highlights MIT’s Inclusive Innovation Challenge, which aims to recognize “organizations (both for profit and non-profit) that are committed to inclusion of technological innovations for economic prosperity of base and middle income earners.”
Sophomore Vick Liu speaks with CBS Boston’s Lisa Hughes about the sleeping bag he designed to help Syrian refugees. “For refugees who are living either in camps or resettlement areas, it’s very tough to stay warm,” says Liu. “There was such a large group of people who were suffering, and I was just trying to figure out how can I help.”
Channel 7’s Ryan Schulteis speaks with sophomore Vick Liu about TravelerPack, a lightweight sleeping bag Liu designed to help Syrian refugees withstand freezing winter temperatures. Liu drew on his experience as an Eagle Scout to help create the sleeping bag. “My whole goal in life is really just to impact people in a positive way,” said Liu.
Sophomore Vick Liu speaks with NECN’s Caroline Connolly about what inspired him to develop a new sleeping bag to help Syrian refugees survive harsh winters in the Middle East. "At the end of the day, we didn't start this to make money. We didn't start this to get a ton of prestige," he said. "We just wanted to help people."
Associated Press reporter Collin Binkley writes that Vick Liu, a sophomore at MIT, has developed a new line of sleeping bags designed to help Syrian refugees survive winter in the Middle East. Binkley writes that Liu, “designed the sleeping bag using his backpacking experience as an Eagle Scout but also gathered advice from refugees who fled Syria's civil war.”
Writing for The Boston Globe, MIT graduate student Matthew Claudel argues that innovation efforts should be focused on being more socially inclusive. “Municipalities that foster accessible innovation for livelihoods will reap the benefits of greater livability. It is those places, rather than techno-hubs that prize quick, marketable lifestyle amenities, that will emerge as the smartest cities of the future.”
CBS Boston’s Paula Ebben reports on MIT’s Innovation Playground, a space created for HUBweek to showcase the science, art and technological breakthroughs happening in Kendall Square. “We want people to go away and say, yup, that’s what’s going on in Kendall Square,” says Sarah Gallop of MIT’s Office of Government and Community Relations.